Don’t Wait To Talk About Hospice

We are grateful to the Lee’s Summit Tribune for publishing this heartfelt “Letter to the Editor” from Village Hospice administrator Ketti Dawson, in their Nov. 26, 2022 paper:

November 26, 2022

By Ketti Dawson

Administrator, Village Hospice

As we celebrate National Hospice month in November, we’d like to remind you about the gift of hospice. Too many people wait until they are in the middle of a health care crisis before they think about what options are available, or what care they or their loved ones would have wanted.

Often, by waiting too long to learn about possible options, like hospice care, people end up spending difficult days in the hospital or the emergency room; and opportunities to spend precious moments with loved ones are lost. One of the best ways to make sure you and your loved one benefit fully from hospice, should you ever need this care, is to talk about it before they need it.

When a person is dealing with a serious illness and a cure is no longer possible, hospice provides the type of care most people say they want at the end of life: comfort and dignity. Hospice provides high-quality, compassionate care for people with a life-limiting illness, and includes expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support. Care is provided to the patient and their family/caregivers by an inter-disciplinary team of professionals and trained volunteers. And most importantly, the wishes of the patient and family are always at the center of care.

Hospice is provided wherever the patient calls home. This can be their own home, with a family member, nursing facility, assisted living facility and inpatient hospice facilities. Care is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance plans and HMOs.

For more information about hospice and advance care planning, contact Village Hospice at 816-525-0986.

Village Hospice is a service of John Knox Village, a not-for-profit corporation. Since 2002, Village Hospice has been helping create more moments of life for patients in their homes, in nursing, independent and assisted living facilities, and two hospitals. They care for patients in eight Missouri counties in and around the Kansas City area.